An exploration of (photo)journalism

Three Mile Island, 32 years later

Thanks to a tip I got from a Washington Post photographer whom I’ve long admired (more on that in an upcoming post), I left my apartment at 1:15 a.m. today to cover the 32nd annual Three Mile Island vigil.

On the surface, it was similar to many vigils I’ve covered. A few people spoke out against nuclear power and the powers that be. There were plenty of media, and there were plenty of candles and signs.

Yet, covering this particular vigil was a little strange to me. Whereas other vigils I covered were for fairly recent events — the Virginia Tech shootings, 9/11, etc. — the Three Mile Island meltdown was something I learned about in history books. I wasn’t alive when it happened. But it’s something that’s still very real to people in this area, and my realization that this paragraph in my history textbook has remained a hot topic was a startling one.